Why Budgets Matter: Budget Policy and American Politics; Revised and Updated Edition

by Dennis S. Ippolito

Overview

When the first edition of Why Budgets Matter was published in 2003, the federal budget had fallen back into deficit. At the time, fairly modest changes in taxes and spending would have ensured that deficits and debt would remain at tolerable levels. Instead, the disconnect between taxes and spending that had plagued the United States since the 1960s grew even greater. A near-catastrophic economic collapse beginning in December 2007 then magnified the fiscal consequences of irresponsible policy choices. This new edition examines how and why the balanced-budget equilibrium of the 1990s was destabilized in the 2000s. It also places this latest partisan battle over the size of government in historical perspective by exploring its connection to earlier budget policy eras.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271071138
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2015
Edition description:	Revised and Updated
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dennis S. Ippolito is Eugene McElvaney Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at Southern Methodist University.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Preface xiii

1 Perspectives on Budget Policy 1

2 The "Small Government" Era (1789-1860) 19

3 Budgeting for Government Growth (1860-1915) 59

4 The Transition to Modern Government (1915-1940) 97

5 War and Defense Budgets (1940-1970) 141

6 Social Welfare Budgets and Deficits (1970-1990) 183

7 Reconciliation and Balanced Budgets (1990-2001) 239

8 Destabilizing Budget Policy (2001-) 289

Selected Bibliography 333

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

Ippolito’s analysis of the budget process is an important contribution to the literature on the American budget process. It is unquestionably one of the best books on the subject, similar in scope to Aaron Wildavsky’s classic The New Politics of the Budgetary Process (1988). Overall, Why Budgets Matter: Budget Policy and American Politics is an excellent historical account of the federal budget process, and it is intended for a general adult reading audience.”

—Patrick Fisher,Perspectives on Political Science, on the first edition

“This book is without doubt the best analysis yet written of federal budgeting from the late eighteenth century to the present. . . . The subject matter of this splendid book should therefore be of immense interest to students of political history and public policy.”

—Iwan Morgan,Journal of American History, on the first edition

From the Publisher